"The notion of a “digital business ecosystem” was probably first established in connection with the Lisbon Agenda in March 2000 and has later been used extensively in connection with the growth of smartphones (“the war of ecosystems”) in order to find the mechanisms that decide sustainable competitive advantages for either Samsung, Apple or Nokia-Microsoft.

An e-Ecosystem improves the traditional, collaborative environments such as centralized, distributed and hybrid business models, and develops them further into an innovative holistic model that has been the result of the development of the so-called systems (or systemic) approach. Some of the benefits of e-Ecosystems include the cost-effectiveness of services and value-creating activities, which are advantageous to many of the actors involved, including companies and consumers as well as interacting business partners in both inbound and out-bound supply chains."